Ryan Day's Ohio State gear up for 2025 season as players take the field for spring practice ft. Julian Sayin

The Ohio State Buckeyes are the reigning national champions and are gearing up for their title defense in 2025.

Ohio State will look much different in 2025 as several key players will be off to the NFL, so the Buckeyes opened spring practice with plenty of intrigue. On Monday, the team practiced, with Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith among the players getting plenty of attention.

Ohio State has a major question mark at quarterback as Will Howard is out of eligibility and will be off to the NFL. Sayin was a five-star recruit in the class of 2024 and could start at quarterback as a redshirt freshman for the Buckeyes.

Sayin will face competition from Lincoln Kienholz and Tavien St. Clair, and coach Ryan Day is eager to watch it play out.

"They're young," Day said of his quarterbacks, via 247Sports. "They're going to have to compete and we need a quarterback to be tough. We need him to be a leader.

"I've said this before, they've had a great opportunity to watch Will, even Tavien, because he was a big part of being around these guys last spring… Lincoln was with him every day. Julian was with him every day. So, that's the standard of what the leadership should look like. Now they've got to go do it."

The Buckeyes will have plenty of time to make a decision at quarterback as Ryan Day will monitor spring practices and fall camp before he has to announce a starter.

Ryan Day not focused on QB competition in Ohio State's spring practices

In spring practice, Ryan Day said he isn't focused on the quarterback competition.

Instead, Day said he just wants to see all three quarterbacks get meaningful reps and improve, as the battle will really be in fall camp.

"Early on we're going to try to roll," Day said of the quarterbacks. "We're going to try to go three groups so those guys get equal amount of reps. We'll split up who goes where… We're going to roll them and we're going to try to get the best evaluation we can.

"We'll evaluate everything. Specifically early on in the spring we want to roll those guys the best we can because the number one goal of spring is to get individual players better."

The Buckeyes will have plenty of time to make a quarterback decision, and with three capable quarterbacks, multiple could start and play throughout the season.

Ohio State enters the 2025 season with the best odds to win the national championship at +500. The Buckeyes will open its season against Texas on Aug. 30. They have notable games against Michigan, Penn State and Wisconsin.